La Casa is all about location. It is built on a steep hill overlooking the lake and opposite 3 volcanoes. The views are amazing. On our first night we upgraded from an average room to a fabulous room. The photos sum it up really …
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| Our room |
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| The view |
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| More of the view |
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| Must mention the view... |
Each night the hotel serves dinner “family-style” around a communal, candlelit table. It’s a really lovely idea when it works - we met a bunch of lovely, funny and interesting people from America, Australia and Holland, but one night we were not so lucky and sat opposite the greatest Norwegian bores that ever have lived. The food is tasty albeit simple. You get a soup, side salad/veges, main (fish=good, chicken mole=bad, chicken keiv=good) and dessert for Q85 (about $10), which is expensive by Guatemalan standards, but cheap everywhere else.
We spent 3 days and nights relaxing at La Casa. In between watching the sunrises and sunsets, we did a few things of note:
- Day trip to Chichicastenengo, a market in the highlands. The big market days are Thursday and Sunday. The locals set up hundreds of stalls in the main plaza and streets of the town. Parts of the market are targeted towards tourists, selling weaved products and wooden souvenirs (you get the feeling that you have walked past the same shop 1000’s of times), while others sell food, vegetables and everything else that local families need (toys, flowers, chickens, pigs etc). We were excited to see the food area because we had read that it was full of Guatemala Grandma’s cooking amazing chicken stews and chicolitas full of chocolate … but walking through the market was pretty dirty and we didn’t see anything good enough to risk getting sick. Sad times.
- I bought two Tz’utujil oil paintings. The Tz’utujil style originated in the Mayan towns surrounding the lake and the technique is handed down from generation to generation in particular families. The paints are brightly coloured and show Mayan market scenes from above. Cute!
- We went kayaking on the lake.
- We visited San Marcos across the lake, a quiet little town with dirt streets and a couple of shops, with an exceptionally modern, shiny and out of place basketball arena.
- We watched the moon shining over the lake at 4am.
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| Fruit and vegetables at Chichicastenango |
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The hotel has a number of "balconies" over the lake, made for
jumping off/sunbathing etc - only the water level
of the lake rose 3 metres during heavy rain, a few months ago,
so the balconies don't really make sense anymore |
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| Grey on the wharf - the only way to get to the hotel is by boat |
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| Grey with average Guat food |
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| Grey make the mistake of seeking out a Spurs game |
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| ... sad about Spurs |
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